Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.